Posted on 03/29/2002 5:57:58 AM PST by NativeNewYorker
For American Muslims,time once counted in minutes and hours is now measured as before and after. Before and after September 11.
Before the terrorist strikes, they felt safe in their homes and offices and, although many felt apart from the mainstream, most believed they had an equal stake in the American Dream. After the attacks, the nightmare of detention camps, such as those employed against Japanese Americans in the second world war, has seemed to many like a real threat.
These sentiments were expressed repeatedly at two town meetings held this week in the northern Virginia suburbs after 150 federal agents raided 14 homes and offices of some of the region's most respected Muslim leaders.
The raids were launched as part of Operation Green Quest, a task force created to track and disrupt the sources of terrorist finances. The Customs Service leads the group but it includes investigators from across a broad spectrum of agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service, the FBI and Secret Service.
In northern Virginia they targeted, among others, the International Institute of Islamic Thought, the Graduate School of Islamic Social Sciences, the Muslim World League and the Fiqh Council of North America. These bodies were described by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) as "respected Islamic institutions" whose targeting "sends a hostile and chilling message to the American Muslim community and contradicts President Bush's repeated assertions that the war against terrorism is not a conflict with Islam".
According to Customs, Operation Green Quest is carrying out more than 300 probes into terrorist finances. In its four months of operation, it has seized about Dollars 10.3m (Pounds 7.2m) in smuggled US currency and Dollars 4.3m in other assets. Its work has resulted in 21 searches, 12 arrests and four indictments.
It says evidence seized during the raids has generated "substantial leads". It has several investigations into charities and "so-called" relief operations. "Suspect charities frequently garner funds through community solicitation and fundraising appeals, then divert a portion of these funds to terrorist organisations," it says.
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for Cair, said the task force had acted on "its usual unsupported allegations using secret evidence" classified on grounds of national security. "They raided a poultry business in Georgia," he said. "They are afraid of terrorist chickens." There were no charges and no arrests.
The Justice Department also used secret evidence last week to freeze the assets of Global Relief Foundation, a Muslim charity from the Chicago area. The secrecy is permitted under the Patriot Act, rushed through Congress and signed after September 11. It allows the freezing of assets of groups before proving they have funded terrorism.
Detentions of an estimated 1,200 non-citizens in the wake of September 11 produced harsh condemnation from Amnesty International earlier this month.
Many have been deported and an estimated 300 are believed to remain in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Services.
The Justice Department this week ended another attempt to conduct voluntary interviews of 5,000, predominantly Muslim, foreign nationals. Of these, 2,261 interviews were completed and, according to the Justice Department, fewer than 20 were people detained, mostly on visa violations.
Congressman John Conyers Jr, senior Democrat on the House judiciary committee, is one of the few in Congress who has spoken publicly against Green Quest: "The suggestion that Arab and Muslim Americans appreciate being singled out and interrogated is a prime example of the attorney-general's wartime propaganda machine in full swing."
In northern Virginia, Muslim Americans are still in shock over the raids. According to some of the 300-400 at the town meetings, agents broke doors and locks, brandished guns, and used handcuffs while they ransacked homes and offices.
Once grateful to President George W. Bush, who spoke out against using them as scapegoats for September 11, many now regret backing him in the 2000 election. They spoke of marching on the Capitol, lobbying con- gressmen to hold hearings, impeaching Mr Ashcroft.
"As a community we feel hurt. Our kids are afraid to sleep at night," said Mohamed Majad of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society. Nihad Awad, executive director of Cair, said he had been overseas when he heard about the raids and had had to defend the US government to other Muslims. He said he explained that the government had slipped into the control of "the extremists".
Party before country, eh congressman.
Being a Democrat is an illness.
In light of the fact that after 9/11 we have not seen condemnation from the American Muslims for the terrorist actions, we have not seen any attempts to show how they are different than the terrorists, you are only being realistic.
All we hear are complaints about bias, all we hear are complaints about investigations. If they were horrified at their fellow Muslim actions or if they showed sympathy for the victims, or if they joined in to do all to catch the terrorists, we would feel differently.
Their fellow Muslims have given all in the U.S. a wakeup call that drew attention to the part of the Koran that says kill all non-believers. We have seen the hate against America they teach and generate in their schools. THEY have caused this - not the Americans who accept all religions, all beliefs or non-beliefs.
It is up to them to align themselves with the Americans against this effort in their religion. They do not do so. We react as we have to react and no person will make me overlook the fact that their beliefs and their intolerance of others puts Americans at risk.
We are supposed to allow them the privacy to take up contributions to support terrorist actions against us. If they are so innocent, they should come forth and tell of these contributions. I have no sympathy for them.
File this under "More Muslim Whining".
If he feels "hurt" and upset now about "raids" and detentions, wonder what he'll feel like if in-country Muslims manage another 9/11-type attack. Americans of all stripes will be demanding all the types of questioning, arrests and detentions he is complaining about. It would help if some of their leaders would publicly condemn the actions of their brethren and support US efforts to fight terrorism, rather than condemn our response as "extremism".
Funny you should mention that. The only RWB Turbans I'm aware of were on the heads of Sikhs, not musli.
That could be said about combatants in every war !!
From what I have observed and studied the Arabs (mostly moslem,some Christian) mostly fought among themselves and left the outside world alone- until a little over 50 yrs.(and even after) ago enter the Israeli zionist who began by violence, intimidation, trickery ethnically cleansing the land of Palestinian Arabs. Until such time the Jews and Arabs had lived peacefully together in the biblical lands.Lets also remember it was not the Arabs, but Israel, who attacked the USS Liberty for 4 hours with loss of much life and eventual scrapping of the ship, while Pres.Johnson and McNamara turned back US fighter planes launched by a heroic navy Admiral to defend the USS Liberty, which could have saved many US sailors lives, because it was Israel doing the attacking..Til today there has been no congressional investigation, and their names should live in infamy.
I do not doubt many Arabs resent the one-sided backing of Israel- right-or-wrong- even to the veto of UN resolutions by the USA calling for impartial observers in Palestine. I hardly think the terrorist crime took place because of a ballot-box-stuffing inner-city democracy or being jealous of the way people live in NYC-- I live a long way from NYC and most of my fellow working people are glad they do not live there !! And not one of them would vote for Hillary, but they are all loyal Americans, maye a litte too willing to be "back" our President in his military adventures.
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